Bomb blast kills 8 militiamen in Iraq

Eight members of a militia linked to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were killed Thursday (February 14th) in a bomb blast north of Baghdad, AFP reported.

The roadside bomb exploded when a convoy of Saraya al-Salam militia drove along a highway near Samarra, one source said, adding that several people were also wounded in the attack.

One of the eight militiamen killed was a commander who took part in anti-extremist operations in Iraq, said another source.

The militia, led by al-Sadr whose political alliance triumphed in the May 2018 parliamentary elections, has been deployed in the Samarra region since 2014 when the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) swept across Iraq.